


The Second One Is Better

by robindrake93



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Explicit Sexual Content, Fluff, Light Angst, Multi, POV Third Person, Polyamory, Porn with Feelings, Rebirth, Short One Shot, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:06:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26421592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/robindrake93/pseuds/robindrake93
Summary: Rachel has been dreaming of Percy and Luke for her whole life. She knows how this is going to play out.
Relationships: Luke Castellan/Percy Jackson, Rachel Elizabeth Dare/Luke Castellan, Rachel Elizabeth Dare/Percy Jackson, Rachel Elizabeth Dare/Percy Jackson/Luke Castellan
Comments: 12
Kudos: 74





	The Second One Is Better

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Shannara810](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shannara810/gifts).



> For Shan, because she asked and I love her. And also because there isn't enough perachel in the world.

“I want you to meet my boyfriend,” Percy says one night as they’re laying in bed, the sweat still cooling on their skin. His emerald green eyes bore into Rachel’s peridot green ones, worry laced in every line of his face. For a moment, the worry lines and the gray streak in his black hair make Percy look like an old man. 

Rachel cups Percy’s face, watching the way his eyes slid half shut at her touch. There was power in loving Percy Jackson. She may have been young but she wasn’t so naive as to abuse that power. “Tell me about him.” 

Percy’s expression tells her that he wasn’t expecting that reaction. But he begins to speak, halting and stuttering at first as he tries to find the words. It becomes clear very quickly that the relationship is complicated, though Percy never uses that word. He waxes poetic about the man - he’s a man, Percy insists, he’s older than them, he’s in his twenties and they’re only fifteen - that makes Rachel love him vicariously. It would be impossible not for her to love him, because the man that Percy describes is one of two that she’s been dreaming of for years. 

“But what’s his name, Percy?” Rachel cuts in. She’s never had a name to go with his face but she’s sure that her dream man is Percy’s boyfriend because Percy is the other man - teenager - that she dreamed of. 

“Luke,” Percy says, eyes wide and longing written across his features. “His name is Luke.” 

Percy tries to set it up for them to meet as normal people would, but Rachel insists that they should meet in private. They wait for the next night that Sally and Paul are out of the apartment for the night, and Percy sends Luke an Iris Message from another room. His voice is low and the worry hasn’t left him since he confessed to having another lover. 

Rachel brings Percy a shot of Sally Jackson’s wine. Not enough to get drunk or even buzzed, but enough that the flavor should keep Percy grounded. She presses the glass to his lips and Percy drinks. Then she kisses him. “Don’t worry, Percy. I’ll like him.” 

The look on Percy’s face tells Rachel that he isn’t just worried about how she’ll handle Luke. It never occurred to Rachel that Luke might not like her because she had been dreaming about him for so long that she couldn’t imagine it. But dreams went one way; Percy didn’t know that Rachel saw him in her dreams before she met him. 

Rachel leads the way to Percy’s room, laying back on the bed and pulling Percy down with her. 

Percy won’t stay still. It’s one of the nights where Percy is so full of nervous energy that he’s practically vibrating. He kisses Rachel, caresses her cheek, and then he’s up and pacing the room. “He should be here soon,” Percy says by way of explanation as he keeps going to check the fire escape. 

Percy and the fire escape have long since had something of a contention for each other. Percy is terrified that someone will peer into his bedroom but he refuses to tell Rachel who or why he thinks that. He only shakes his head and says “you never know whos watching” as he pulls the blinds down. The shadows in Percy’s room have always made him jump. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out who Percy is afraid of spying on him. He’s said it in not so many words, that Annabeth thinks she owns him and that she has a cap of invisibility. Rachel prides herself on being smart, so even when Percy only gives her breadcrumbs, she can look at the clues and get the whole picture. 

Then there’s someone at the fire escape. The man comes in through the window, broad shoulders and short cropped hair. He’s wearing a v-neck t-shirt, nice jeans, and a black leather jacket. There’s a scar from his eye to his jaw. He moves like a predator, all feline grace and rippling muscle. 

“This is Luke,” Percy says. He closes the distance between them, crashing into Luke like they’re magnets. Rachel has never seen Percy so needy and clingy, she thinks as Percy throws his arms around Luke’s neck and kisses him on the mouth. Compared to Luke, Percy is still a child, every bit of his young fifteen years showing. 

Luke wraps Percy in his arms and kisses him, firm and sure of his right to have the teenager in his arms. For a few long moments they’re lost in each other, rubbing their cheeks together and kissing and Percy’s hands go to Luke’s hair, while Luke’s hands slide down to cup Percy’s ass. Rachel knows what they’re doing because Percy explained it to her once, but she can’t participate in the scenting; her sense of smell isn’t strong like the demigods and they can smell things she can’t. Finally, Luke looks up from his young lover and meets Rachel’s eye. “Nice to meet you,” Luke says. 

“I’m Rachel Elizabeth Dare,” she says and for the first time ever, her name feels too long. Watching them, Rachel is suddenly seized by a longing to have them both in bed with her. She can feel her heartbeat between her legs. Rachel wears a shirt that she borrowed from Percy but Luke’s amused expression tells her that it was his before Percy got to it. She rises to her feet, pads quietly across the carpet - but not as quietly as them - and presses against Luke, nudging Percy out of the way. She has to stand on her tiptoes to reach the man’s mouth, and only manages to kiss the corner of it.

Luke turns his head and then his mouth is on hers. His lips are just this side of chapped and he tastes like chocolate chip cookies, which is a sweet surprise for Rachel. When they part, he smiles down at her, blue eyes twinkling. 

Percy is looking between them with unguarded hope in his face, as though there was ever any question of them liking each other. 

Rachel smiles back. “You taste good,” she says because she knows that Luke may be smiling but he wants her to like him just as much as Percy does. Rachel has seen his past and his present and his future. She knows that he’s broken so badly that it isn’t fair, not fair at all, and she doesn’t think they can fix him. But if they can’t fix him, then they can give Luke some moments of bliss to think about when he’s alone and tortured. 

Luke laughs and then he’s ducking his head to kiss her again. One hand around Percy’s waist, the other slides around Rachel’s waist to draw her to him. Yes, he does taste delicious and Rachel likes the hard lines of his body against hers. He’s a foot taller than her but he’s so gentle. 

Percy kisses Rachel’s neck and then reaches on his tiptoes to kiss Luke’s. He goes back and forth, kissing what bits of skin he can reach on both of them. His nervous energy has turned into simple energy and now Percy interrupts their kissing to tug them both to the bed. 

Rachel follows Percy to the bed, noting for the first time in a long time how very small it is. They’ll have to squeeze in together and it’s a good thing that they’re Fated to be together. She flops down onto the pillows, between the wall and Percy. “He’s been waiting all night,” Rachel says with a fond smile and a conspiratorial look at Luke. 

Luke slides out of his boots before joining them at the bed. He pulls his shirt off, revealing tanned muscle and scars cutting across his torso. He’s beautiful like the heroes of ancient Greece. For a second as he moves, Rachel thinks she can catch a hint of his demigod scent - hot candle wax and leather and the salt of Percy’s ocean scent melded forever with his - but then she’s distracted because Luke is crawling up between her spread legs. 

Percy watches from the corner of his eye, his mouth at Rachel’s neck. He always knows just what to do with his mouth, how to suck delicate red bruises into Rachel’s skin that fade before she has to go home. 

Luke kisses Rachel again. He rests his hands on her knees, silently asking for permission and feeling her out. 

Rachel slides the tip of her tongue across Luke’s lips, wanting to taste his sweetness again. She hooks one foot around his waist to encourage him to be braver and touch her more intimately.

Luke slides two fingers into her, then a third. His thumb is on her clit. He may have a boyfriend but he knows what he’s doing with a woman. His hands are rough with old calluses. His calluses come from holding a sword, she knows, because Percy is beginning to develop them too. 

His fingers curl up, his thumb rubs in just the right way, and Rachel soars. She rolls her hips into his hand, panting and moaning. Her legs tremble. Luke gets her to orgasm so fast that it takes her breath away. When she cums, she throws her head back, arches her back and doesn’t make a sound. 

Luke kisses her. Then he coaxes Percy to stop leaving love bites on Rachel’s neck and kiss him. Together, they are quick and efficient and desperately wanting. Luke is naked in seconds. He produces lube from somewhere and has Percy ready in moments. 

Percy is face down on the mattress, ass up so that Luke can thrust into him. The expression on his face is one of pure love and excitement. There is no discussion; they both know what they want. 

Rachel watches Luke thrust into Percy, both of them moving in sync with each other like they’ve done this a hundred times before. Luke doubles over Percy, biting his shoulders and murmuring something to him in Spanish. 

Rachel is still throbbing from her orgasm, but after a few moments of watching, she can’t stand to be left out. She slips underneath Percy, rests his cheek on her chest, and guides his cock into her cunt. The feeling of being full is delightful. 

Percy whimpers and whispers, “I’m gonna die.” He sounds happy about it, though. 

To which Rachel and Luke both roll their eyes, see each other doing it, and form a tighter bond in that second than when Luke was fingering her. 

Rachel matches her thrusts to Luke’s, rolling her hips up on every down stroke. As though he were fucking her too. She shivers as pleasure courses through her legs and abdomen. 

Percy predictably doesn’t die, but he cums so fast after entering her that Rachel is almost disappointed. 

Luke pulls out and lets Percy lay on the bed, panting and trembling. He kisses and nuzzles Percy, makes a promise in Spanish, and then lifts his gaze to look at Rachel. He raises an eyebrow. He hasn’t cum yet, evidenced by the way his cock hangs heavy between his legs. 

Rachel aches with longing to see it. She kisses Percy and moves to her original spot beside him, which has since grown cold. She spreads her legs in invitation. 

To her surprise, Luke rolls a condom on. When he sees her expression, Luke just shrugs. She gets it; better safe than sorry. Luke is careful with her, easing his cock inside with more gentleness than he’s shown so far; though he hasn’t been rough at all. 

Percy holds Rachel’s hand while Luke thrusts into her. He holds Luke’s wrist with his other hand. He watches them through hooded lids, expression hopeful and longing. Percy wants them to like each other. 

Rachel matches Luke thrust for thrust, this time without her heavy boyfriend on top of her. She squeezes Percy’s hand and gently strokes Luke’s cheek. Not trying to be seductive but supportive. She already likes him. How could she not? “You’re so good, Luke,” Rachel whispers. 

Luke is looking into her eyes when he shivers and cums. After that, he kisses her so gently like she might break. He lays between Rachel and Percy, their heads tucked under his chin, their hands clasped across his ribs, his arms around both of them. 

Percy is no longer worried, Luke is no longer alone, and Rachel is no longer waiting. 

The three of them try to meet as often as possible. There are things to consider: school, the army, responsibilities. It’s harder than expected to get them all together, though they do manage a few glorious times. 

Rachel and Luke meet at a cafe and get to know each other better. They talk small talk, giving out the meaningless facts that add up to a human being. After, Rachel invites him to her place and they have more heavy talks between rounds of sex. 

She tells him about her dreams and kisses away the worry wrinkles that show up on his face. Of the future, she admits, “It will get worse before it gets better. You’ll have to wait for us.” 

Luke comes back another time and Rachel paints his skin in a rainbow of colors before taking photo after photo. She wants to remember the earnest sorrow in his blue eyes and the way his muscles feel beneath his skin and how tenderly he holds her. 

Percy is a topic they fall back on when they can’t bring themselves to speak of the future. They tell stories and share worries. Luke admits to trying to kill him and breaks down in the middle of the story. He shakes off her attempts to comfort him. “I don’t deserve it.”

“Has he forgiven you?” The answer seems obvious. 

“Yes. But I haven’t forgiven myself.” 

Rachel and Percy see each other quite frequently without Luke. Not much has changed except sometimes they burst into laughter after one of them sighs wistfully. They miss him. It isn’t surprising when they talk about Luke. Rachel doesn’t give away the big secrets, the ones that matter. She can’t break Percy’s heart even though her own breaks every day. 

“You took to him so fast,” Percy says one day, a leading statement if Rachel has ever heard one. 

“I dreamed of him,” Rachel says and that’s all the affirmation that Percy needs. 

Percy and Luke see each other without Rachel. She’s just happy that they’re happy, that they have someone to lean on when she isn’t there. And she likes teasing Percy about his hickies. Love bites, Percy insists. Rachel doesn’t argue. 

Things change in the worst way only six months after their first meeting. Percy didn’t know what was coming. Rachel knew because she dreamed it and Luke knew because it was his Fate. Neither of them had the heart to tell Percy that their love would come crashing down around them. 

Rachel has tears in her eyes as she throws a blue hairbrush at the man she loved. Her aim is true even though she cries.

Luke isn’t himself anymore, he’s Kronos, but it’s his voice that says _ow_. For a split second their eyes meet and Luke’s are blue and pleading. 

Rachel gives the smallest of nods. And then she’s dashing away with Percy and Annabeth. It’s a long run to safety. 

They have to wait for Annabeth to fall asleep but the moment she does, Rachel and Percy crawl to each other across the dirt floor and hold each other. “Why, why, why?” Percy moans as she holds him. He rocks and sobs into her shoulder. 

Rachel’s tears fall silently; they haven’t stopped since she saw Luke with golden eyes. She can’t give answers or make promises because she’s going to be the next to leave Percy and the knowledge breaks her heart. They are on borrowed time and she dreads Percy’s sixteenth birthday. 

Rachel hates to leave Percy alone after Luke’s death. She hates herself and she hates the gods and she hates Fate. But she has to do this before she chickens out, before she sees Percy’s brokenness and forsakes her destiny as the Oracle. 

Rachel feels especially bad that she’s stealing Percy’s pegasus to do it. Blackjack isn’t happy but he flies her to Camp Half-Blood. Rachel dismounts the pegasus and climbs the stairs of the Big House. 

She tries not to think about Luke being dead or about how Percy was the one to hand him the knife. Thinking about it makes her heart ache so much that she wants to curl up and die and never feel anything again. This will pass, she knows. That doesn't make it suck any less. 

It must be godly interference that allows Percy to reach her just before the Oracle’s spirit touches her. Rachel sees the hurt in his eyes, the satisfaction in Annabeth’s eyes. Rachel almost calls it quits right then, because how could she let Percy wind up with someone like Annabeth Chase? It’s too late. The spirit of the Oracle enters her body. 

Later, Percy will come to Rachel’s cave in the woods and sit down upon her cushions. He won’t look at her as he asks, “Did I do something wrong?” In a voice as small and broken as a child’s. Tears track his cheeks but he doesn’t seem to notice that he’s crying. 

Rachel wants to hold him. She doesn’t dare touch him, because hosting the Oracle doesn’t mean she suddenly doesn’t have a sex drive. Instead she says, as gently as possible, “You didn’t do anything wrong, Percy.”

When he finally lifts his face to meet her eyes, his are the fractured green of a broken beer bottle. “I want to die,” he admits for the first but not the last time; not by a long shot. Percy doubles over until his forehead touches his knees and he keens; a noise which cuts Rachel to the quick. “Gods. I don’t want to live without you and him.” 

It will only get worse, Rachel knows. This life will not be kind to Percy. She does touch him now because her heart is still his. His skin is hot through his t-shirt as she rubs his back, emotions driving his temperature up. A tear rolls down her cheek without him noticing. Rachel knows something else too, has been dreaming of a new future where they don’t quite look the same or call each other by the same names…but she knows it’s them. “Percy,” Rachel whispers. “things will get worse before they get better. You have to be strong, for me and for Luke. He’s waiting for us but we aren’t going to die yet.” 

It is a small comfort, a small hope like a match in the darkness. It could so easily go out. But Percy clutches the lifeline that Rachel has given him. “The next life will be better?” He asks her, lifting his face to stare intensely at her. His skin is blotchy from crying, his eyes are rimmed red, but that match flickers in his irises; delicate hope. 

Rachel fans the flames a little higher. This is all that they have. “Yes,” she says and makes it Fate. “The next life will be better and all three of us will fall in love again.” 

As Percy’s gaze turns foggy, his resolve visibly hardens and Rachel sees that she’s lost him, that everyone has lost him. After this, he never really comes back to the present. Physically, Percy is there. He even goes through the motions if pressed. But his mind is always in the future, always dreaming of the time that the lovers can reunite. 

It takes longer than any of them want. Percy courts death with a reckless abandon but death is coy and always a few steps ahead of him. He's one of the longest living non-immortal demigods to exist in the modern world. He has children and grandchildren, their hair dark and their eyes gray. He's never unkind to them, or to his wife Annabeth, but part of him died with Luke and the rest was crushed when Rachel became the Oracle. When they're old, he comes to her cave and lays down with his head in her lap. He says, "I think it's time." 

Rachel is an old woman too. She strokes Percy's gray hair and looks into his sad green eyes. "I think so too," she says gently. They close their eyes and that's that. Their bodies are still warm when they're found but it's clear that there's no life left in the Oracle and the son of Poseidon. Rumors fly about how they died together and what it means but those rumors never touch them.

She is a freshman in high school, just turned fifteen, when she catches the eye of the boy on the track team. He's a senior and he's beautiful and his eyes are so sad that it makes her heart ache for him. She's supposed to be taking photographs of the team but most of them are just of him. He stops, flops into the grass beside her, and says, "I feel like I've met you before." 

"You know, it's weird but I feel the same way," she replies. This is her first assignment with the track team, they don't share any classes, she knows that she's never seen his face before. Yet he feels so familiar, like putting on her favorite sweater. 

They talk for the rest of practice and it seems incredibly lucky that no one calls them back to their duties. Conversation is easy, so easy, and they make each other laugh. She loses track of time so easily, is sure that it's only been a few minutes but when she finally withdraws from the conversation, she realizes that it's been hours and they've skipped class and it's the end of the day. 

Her boyfriend appears as though checking her watch summoned him. His hair is wet from swim practice and he's neglected to put his shirt back on. He's the only freshman on the swim team. When he sees them together, he pauses, eyes widening. Then he smiles a strange smile in how fond it is. He joins them and says to the senior, "We're going to the diner for dinner. You should come with us." 

By the time they make it to the diner, they've all agreed to date each other and it happens fast but time is so relative and it feels like they've known each other for so long. By the end of the night, they've kissed each other and their eyes are shining with happiness. They walk home together holding hands and talking and during a lull in the conversation, she has the most peculiar thought: _the second life really is better._


End file.
